Revision as of 08:08, 5 April 2010

Big Note - a misreading of the BestPractices and BadForm sections means that a lot of this is really BadForm. I'd love to change it to be more nice, this is my first time on a Wiki, I'm not sure how to do it so if anyone could help it'd be appreciated - VaticanT

All fixed up - I think. Gomenesai!- VaticanT

-The Mandate of Heaven-

Rules

These rules reflect a character oriented control mechanism, rather than an abstract campaign guide. It is therefore more active. It is also intended for allowing a greater scope of outcomes.

Dominion Creation:

See pg 132 STC. Some notes on what Traits constitute in the frame of Reference of Mandate of Heaven:

Virtues

These represent a Dominion’s social mores and values. Nations are often led astray by high Virtues inasmuch as they are served by them.

Compassion: This reflects a societies concern for its own, as well as other societies as well. A society with low Compassion will not gain much from associations with others, or from caring for it’s own, but a society with high Compassion may find it to act against others, even if it is in its best interest.

Conviction: This reflects a society’s tolerance for suffering as well as its drive to succeed. Such societies do not appreciate prevaricating rulers. A society with low conviction will fold under pressure, but a society with high Conviction may find it hard to change course.

Temperance: This reflects a dominion’s desire for stability and cohesion. A society with low temperance will be susceptible to outside influence and be unable to control its own excesses, but a society with high Temperance may find itself incapable of change.

Valor: This represents a nation’s pride, aggression and vigour. A nation with low Valor will find it hard to assert itself, but a nation whose Valor is too high will find it hard to avoid wars and accept aid.

Abilities

These are the aptitudes, technologies, and processes possessed by the Dominion. They tend to be less Over-arching than the Attributes, and thus often less detrimental in extremes.

Awareness: This indicates a Dominions understanding and connection with surrounding dominions, as well as a wide and inherent ability to see things through other viewpoints. It also reflects the Dominion’s ability to learn. Dominions without a great amount in this ability are sometimes insular or culturally chauvinistic to the point of wilful ignorance.

Bureaucracy: This ability determines the structural integrity and sophistication of its governing systems. Dominions that lack this ability may well lack sophisticated methods of dealing with new problems, or be vulnerable to abuse by the canny.

Craft: This ability represents a Dominion’s ability to produce and distribute goods necessary for a fluid economy. A society with low Crafts may be essentially non-productive, or might be a subsistence community, only capable of providing for itself, or might have a low-technological base.

Integrity: This represents a society’s control mechanisms, its ability to control its population and its resistance to outside influence. A society with low Integrity might be culturally porous, or it might be prone to corruption and subversion due to indifference.

Investigation: This represents a dominion’s internal intelligence gathering capabilities. This might represent a network of allied spirits, a whispering campaign or a well-developed internal police network. A dominion with a low Investigation might be trusting, fractitious, or may lack strong centralised rulership.

Occult: This represents the Dominions mystical traditions, be it Ancestor cults, governing bodies of Exalts, Wyld influence, or Spiritual rulers. A culture with low Occult might be intolerant of Essence users, ruled by an autocratic mystic dictator who weeds out rivals, or may simply be ignorant (and vulnerable!)

Performance: This represents the Culture’s ability to express itself internally, be that through festivals, propaganda, or artistic expression. A culture with low performance may be Militaristic, utilitarian, or might be recovering from a disaster that makes self-expression an expensive luxury.

Presence: This constitutes a Dominion’s ability to express and articulate itself externally, to opposing nations. A culture with low presence might be insular, pacifistic, or widely despised.

Stealth: This ability represents a Culture’s intelligence capabilities, be they spies, friendly spirits, or even well informed trade networks. A culture with low Stealth might be insular, distinctive, or even just too trusting.

War: This ability reflects a society’s apparatus of War, such as its training regimens, military technology and logistical capability. A country with low war may not possess military traditions, may lack appropriate auspices for supporting standing armies or may lack the organisational structures for maintaining armies in the field.

Attribute Damage

A dominion's Attributes can be damaged through Events, or by the actions of another Dominion. Attribute points paid for by Temporary or Permanent Bonus Points are lost, and the bonus points used to pay for them are lost as well. Attributes damaged below their base level will slowly regenerate, as described under VTMOHBonusPoints.

Bonus Points

Bonus points are an integral part of this system; they govern how a Dominion expands and diminishes, its wealth and resources. They are discussed at length under VTMOHBonusPoints

Dominion Conflict

Turn Length: the default turn length is 1 Season. Other campaign styles can be accommodate with longer turn length, but as these rules are Character directed, the represent cultures currently in the thick of things. Cultures can therefore only affect Dominions with a Magnitude 1 higher than their own, under the standard setting. If they wish to affect a larger magnitude than that, then they can perform an action in advance, but it will not be finished (and rolled for) until the greater time increment has passed (either 1 year or 1 decade).

Step One: Roll Initiative

Each player rolls Government+Bureaucracy to determine Initiative order. The player with the highest number of successes goes first. In event of a tie, it goes to the player with higher Temperance.

Step Two: Dominion Actions

A dominion takes a number of actions each turn equal to its Magnitude. The magnitude also determines the number of events the domain suffers each turn. Select an action you want the dominion to perform, and make sure it can pay the action cost. If the dominion cannot pay the cost, the dominion cannot perform the action. Next, check the ability and attribute minimums. Attributes use their current rating (not their base rating) when calculating minimums, and specialties do not count towards Ability minimums.

If the action requires a roll, check for any modifiers that apply to the action (see pg 145 of the STC). If a dominion has enough actions remaining, it may take up to three actions, but must then move to Step 3 to select an Event. Control then of play moves to the next player. If any unused actions remain at the end of step 3, the dominion returns to step 2 and takes them after the event occurs. Step 2 and 3 repeat in this manner until no actions or events remain.

Step Three: Events

Domains simulate strife and internal disorder with events. Any dominion beginning Step 3 with a limit of 1 or greater must undergo an event, and any dominion completing this step with a Limit of 10 automatically undergoes a Limit Break during the dominions next full turn.

The opposition (be that the Storyteller or Player) selects an event for your dominion, as long as it doesn’t cost any Willpower. No player may select their own events, though if the Storyteller is controlling multiple dominions or unopposing dominions, Players may only control opposing dominions. An event can be ignored (before rolling) by the expenditure of 2 WP points. Alternatively, the player can allow the event to occur. Should the event proceed, roll (Dominion Attribute+Ability+Modifiers) against the defending roll. Details are listed under each event. Once all dominions have taken all their actions and undergone all their events, go to step four.

Step Four: Recovery

Once all Dominions complete their actions, the dominions have the ability to recover. All dominions automatically reduce Limit by 1, except those about to undergo limit break on the following turn. The dominion also has a chance to recover Willpower. Roll the Dominion’s Highest Virtue with a difficulty equal to current Willpower. If successful the domain restores 1 wp.

Some effects have a fixed duration. Reduce all durations by 1 at this point. If they reach zero, they expire.

Domains recover 1 lost bonus point at this stage, to a maximum of (the domain’s magnitude x5)+(the bonus point value of any trade pacts, backing, and tribute)-(the value of any backing and tribute being provided). The domain can also spend Temporary Bonus Points up to the magnitude of the domain, each point spent recovering 1 Permanent Bonus Point. A domain loses its (Magnitude divided by 3, round up) in Temporary Bonus Points each turn.

A dominion with Damaged Attribute points restores them at this stage, adding 1 point to each every turn. This only applies to Attributes damaged below their base level, unmodified by Bonus Points.

VaticanT/MOHLimitbreaks

Expansion

Nations grow. Villages become towns, towns become cities, and cities become metropolises. Nations expand through conquest, trade, and development.

Crucial to expansion are Permanent Background points. These represent the solid, reliable influx of wealth and source of power that underpin the maintenance of an empire and its expansion. Below are listed the requirements, in bonus points, for gaining a point of magnitude:

0-1: 5 bonus points

1-2: 15 bonus points

2-3: 25 bonus points

3-4: 45 bonus points

4-5: 65 bonus points

5-6: 95 bonus points

6-7: 125 bonus points

7-8: 165 bonus points

8-9: 205 bonus points

After accruing the requisite number of bonus points, the Dominion must take the expansion action. It is then redesigned as a Domain of the higher magnitude, with the following restrictions –

- it must retain all the Traits it currently possesses.

- It retains all the pacts, backing, tribute, and alliances it currently possesses

Diminishing

In time, a domain that fails to address its fundamental failures may diminish, as more vital societies strip it of its wealth, power, and prestige. If a domain is reduced to less than 0 bonus points, it immediately undergoes a Limit Break on the next domain turn. Following that Limit Break, it is redesigned as a dominion 1 point smaller.

Unlike expansion, this does not require cohesion. A society can redesign itself thoroughly after such a failure, emerging differently to cope with its change in circumstances. In addition a Dominion that has diminished can use the opportunity to dispense with any trade pacts, alliances, or backing that doesn’t please it. It suffers no penalties for doing so, although cancelled trade alliances or tributaries which stop providing tribute will affect the other dominion in the partnership.

VTMOHDiplomaticConditions

Dominion Actions

These are the actions that a dominion takes; the expression of its will and ideals, and how it shapes its Destiny. Most actions consist of a Dicepool vs. Dicepool contested roll to determine how effective they are. The following modifiers apply to a dominion when taking actions: (I can't do tables yet :( ) The following is a list of terms used in the action descriptions.

Cost: Mark off temporary Willpower boxes by the listed amount. If the dominion cannot meet the Willpower requirements the dominion cannot perform the Listed action. Willpower can also be committed, in which case it cannot be regained until the action duration runs out or its effects otherwise cease.

Mins: The dominion must possess at least this rank in attribute and ability when selecting actions, or the dominion cannot perform the action.

Dif: the base difficulty of the action. Usually Expressed as (Trait)+(Trait)

Keywords: The list of keyword qualities possessed by the action. These rules use the following keywords to describe qualities of an action:

Ally: the action may only be used with an allied Dominion (see VTMOHDiplomaticConditions)

At Peace: This action can only be performed if you are currently at peace with the target (see VTMOHDiplomaticConditions).

At War: This action can only be performed if you are currently at war with the target dominion (see VTMOHDiplomaticConditions).

Binding: If you break this treaty, your dominion will suffer repercussions for a period of time. (see VTMOHDiplomaticConditions)

External: the dominion targets another dominion with this action.

Internal: The dominion targets itself with this action

Non-Ally: This action cannot be used with an allied Dominion.

Activation: The activation time determines how often the dominion can perform the action against 1 target. Instant duration actions can be performed whenever needed. If the activation time is greater than the time unit used for the scenario, then it is declared when performed, but resolved at the end of the time. For a standard Season-by-season campaign, that means a Year long action is resolved after 5 turns, and a decade-long action is resolved at the end of 50 turns.

Dominions acting against smaller Dominions reduce the activation time of actions as follows: 1 greater = normal

2 greater = time reduced by one measure (Decade>Year>Season>Instant)

3 Greater = Time reduced by two Measures

4 Greater = Time reduced to Instant

Limit Consequences: This is the cost of the action in Terms of Limit. It is often reflected by a roll of 1 Virtue vs. another; if the limit accruing Virtue succeeds add limit equal to the net successes.

Constructive Actions

These are actions that seek to improve the condition of a dominion.

VTMOHConstructiveActions

Self-Destructive Actions

These are things that a domain is subjected to, rather than actively performs…usually. For whatever reason, a Ruler might intentionally subject their nation to these events. If so, they get a -2 difficulty modifier.

VTMOHSelfDestructiveActions

Conquest Actions

These actions govern direct Military Conflict with another dominion.

VTMOHConquestActions

Propaganda Actions

These actions involve the transference of ideas, the spread of ideologies, and the demonstration of superiority to other Dominions.

VTMOHPropagandaActions

Structural and Economic Actions

These actions cover actions taken by Governments against each other, using bureaucratic and economic interference.

VTMOHStructuralAndEconomicActions

Diplomatic Actions

These actions the methods by which relationships are formed between nations, be they defensive, alliances or even the case for war.

VTMOHDiplomaticActions